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disastrous

di·sast·rous

UK/dɪˈzɑː.stɹəs/ US/dɪˈzæs.tɹəs/ fairly common

adjective

1.

(of events) having extremely unfortunate or dire consequences; bringing ruin

  • “the stock market crashed on Black Friday”
  • “a calamitous defeat”
  • “the battle was a disastrous end to a disastrous campaign”
  • “such doctrines, if true, would be absolutely fatal to my theory” Charles Darwin
  • “it is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it” Douglas MacArthur
  • “a fateful error”
Synonyms
Similar

Origin

From disaster + -ous, after Middle French desastreux (modern French désastreux; from desastre (modern French désastre, “disaster”; from des- + astre, a calque of Italian disastro) + -eux), itself after Italian disastroso, from disastro + -oso, from dis- (“away, without”) (from Latin dis-) + astro (“star, planet”) (from Latin astrum (“star, celestial body”), from Ancient Greek ᾰ̓́στρον (ắstron)).

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Word family

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.